Borderline Personality Disorder and Your Sex Life

Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsAttitudes About SexReckless SexPromiscuityAvoidance of Sex

Table of ContentsView All

View All

Table of Contents

Attitudes About Sex

Reckless Sex

Promiscuity

Avoidance of Sex

Borderline personality disorder (BPD)symptoms can affect your emotional state, yourrelationships, and your ability to control your behavior. So it’s not surprising that BPD can also have a major impact on your sex life.

While very few researchers have studied BPD and its effects on sexuality, more and more work is suggesting that people with BPD can experience several key difficulties with sex.

Research has demonstrated that women with BPD tend to have more negative attitudes about sex. For example, women with BPD report having a greater number of mixed feelings about sexual relations, and are also more likely to feel pressured to have sex with their sexual partners.

In addition, women with BPD report more general sexual dissatisfaction. Much less is known about how BPD affects men’s attitudes about sex.

There may be a number of reasons for these more negative attitudes toward sex, including the fact that:

Impulsive behavioris one of thesymptoms of BPDlisted in the DSM-5. In the case of sexuality, a trend toward impulsive behavior may lead to reckless sexual behavior as well.

In addition to engaging in reckless or impulsive sex, there is evidence that people with BPD are more prone topromiscuity.This differs from impulsive sex in that promiscuity is the act of intentionally having multiple sexual partners (rather than having casual sex on a whim).

Why might people with BPD be more promiscuous? One possibility is that they may use sex to combat feelings of emptiness that are associated with the disorder.

When feeling empty, numb, lonely, or bored, sex may generate positive emotional responses.

Borderline Personality Disorder and Cheating

While some studies have shown an increase in sexual behavior in people with BPD, there is also evidence that some actually avoid sex.

For example, in a 2003 study, Dr. Mary Zanarini and colleagues found that people with BPD reported avoidance of sex for fear of experiencing an exacerbation of their symptoms.

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While the research is far from conclusive (and is particularly sparse with regard to men with BPD), there is evidence to suggest that people with BPD can experience a variety of sexual difficulties.

It is likely that the impact of BPD symptoms on sex can vary substantially from person to person, and can take very different forms. How your symptoms impact your sex life may warrant some reflection or even a discussion with your therapist or partner.

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3 SourcesVerywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Bouchard S, Godbout N, Sabourin S.Sexual attitudes and activities in women with borderline personality disorder involved in romantic relationships.J Sex Marital Ther. 2009;35(2):106-21. doi:10.1080/00926230802712301Sansone RA, Wiederman MW.Borderline personality symptomatology, casual sexual relationships, and promiscuity.Psychiatry(Edgmont). 2009;6(3):36-40.Zanarini MC, Parachini EA, Frankenburg FR, et al.Sexual relationship difficulties among borderline patients and axis II comparison subjects.J Nerv Ment Dis. 2003;191(7):479-82. doi:10.1097/01.NMD.0000081628.93982.1DAdditional ReadingBouchard S, Sabourin S, Lussier Y, Villeneuve E.Relationship quality and stability in couples when one partner suffers from borderline personality disorder.J Marital Fam Ther. 2009;35(4):446-55. doi:10.1111/j.1752-0606.2009.00151.xHurlbert DF, Apt C, White LC.An empirical examination into the sexuality of women with borderline personality disorder.J Sex Marital Ther. 1992;18(3):231-42. doi:10.1080/00926239208403409

3 Sources

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Bouchard S, Godbout N, Sabourin S.Sexual attitudes and activities in women with borderline personality disorder involved in romantic relationships.J Sex Marital Ther. 2009;35(2):106-21. doi:10.1080/00926230802712301Sansone RA, Wiederman MW.Borderline personality symptomatology, casual sexual relationships, and promiscuity.Psychiatry(Edgmont). 2009;6(3):36-40.Zanarini MC, Parachini EA, Frankenburg FR, et al.Sexual relationship difficulties among borderline patients and axis II comparison subjects.J Nerv Ment Dis. 2003;191(7):479-82. doi:10.1097/01.NMD.0000081628.93982.1DAdditional ReadingBouchard S, Sabourin S, Lussier Y, Villeneuve E.Relationship quality and stability in couples when one partner suffers from borderline personality disorder.J Marital Fam Ther. 2009;35(4):446-55. doi:10.1111/j.1752-0606.2009.00151.xHurlbert DF, Apt C, White LC.An empirical examination into the sexuality of women with borderline personality disorder.J Sex Marital Ther. 1992;18(3):231-42. doi:10.1080/00926239208403409

Bouchard S, Godbout N, Sabourin S.Sexual attitudes and activities in women with borderline personality disorder involved in romantic relationships.J Sex Marital Ther. 2009;35(2):106-21. doi:10.1080/00926230802712301Sansone RA, Wiederman MW.Borderline personality symptomatology, casual sexual relationships, and promiscuity.Psychiatry(Edgmont). 2009;6(3):36-40.Zanarini MC, Parachini EA, Frankenburg FR, et al.Sexual relationship difficulties among borderline patients and axis II comparison subjects.J Nerv Ment Dis. 2003;191(7):479-82. doi:10.1097/01.NMD.0000081628.93982.1D

Sansone RA, Wiederman MW.Borderline personality symptomatology, casual sexual relationships, and promiscuity.Psychiatry(Edgmont). 2009;6(3):36-40.

Zanarini MC, Parachini EA, Frankenburg FR, et al.Sexual relationship difficulties among borderline patients and axis II comparison subjects.J Nerv Ment Dis. 2003;191(7):479-82. doi:10.1097/01.NMD.0000081628.93982.1D

Bouchard S, Sabourin S, Lussier Y, Villeneuve E.Relationship quality and stability in couples when one partner suffers from borderline personality disorder.J Marital Fam Ther. 2009;35(4):446-55. doi:10.1111/j.1752-0606.2009.00151.xHurlbert DF, Apt C, White LC.An empirical examination into the sexuality of women with borderline personality disorder.J Sex Marital Ther. 1992;18(3):231-42. doi:10.1080/00926239208403409

Hurlbert DF, Apt C, White LC.An empirical examination into the sexuality of women with borderline personality disorder.J Sex Marital Ther. 1992;18(3):231-42. doi:10.1080/00926239208403409

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